AGY-3838 | Armidale Teachers' College

Full description

David Henry Drummond (member for Armidale) had been appointed Minister for Education on 18 October 1927, (1) and soon gave ‘earnest consideration’ to the decentralisation of teacher training, which had only been available at Sydney Teachers' College. The approval for the establishment of the Armidale Teachers' College was given in a Parliamentary Cabinet Meeting on 13 December 1927 and was officially announced in the Armidale Express on 30 December 1927. (2) The reasons for this development included:

that Sydney Teachers’ College would become ‘unwieldy’ because of increasing enrolments;
many student teachers were recruited from the country and the inconvenience to the students and cost of maintaining them during training was considerable;
the country college provided “an environment similar to that in which they will be obliged to carry out their subsequent teaching duties”.

The Armidale experiment was closely observed with a view to opening other country Colleges if its objectives were achieved. (3)

Also in December 1927 the site for the College, the land and building of the decommissioned Armidale Gaol, was negotiated and tenders were offered for the gaol's demolition. Cecil Bede Newling was appointed College Principal on 1 February 1928. (4)

An inaugural ceremony took place in the Armidale Town Hall on 9 March 1928 and lectures for the first group of 63 students (the Pioneer Session) commenced in a temporary wooden building at the Armidale Public School which became a Demonstration School for the College . (5) The original staff consisted of three full -time lecturers and nine part-time lecturers attached to the Demonstration School. At the beginning of 1929 C.P. Gould was appointed Deputy Principal and the part-time lecturers appointed full-time.

By late 1929 the Armidale College was pronounced “wholly justified” and it was determined that the regionalisation of teacher training should be further developed, and a site for a second country college at Wagga Wagga was acquired. (6)

Construction on the new building began in April 1929; the foundation stone of the main building was laid on 2 November. 'Girrahween' (S.H. Smith House) was purchased for a women's hostel and 'Wharekoa' was leased for a men's hostel. The southern wing of the main building opened in February 1930. The main building was completed in February 1931.

The Armidale Teachers' College (ATC) provided two year training courses for future primary and secondary school educators.

The ATC was one of eight Teachers' Colleges administered by the NSW Department of Education with overall responsibility assumed by the Minister for Education. The Department of Education had a Permanent Head who was an officer of the Public Service Board; teachers were members of the Public Service. The Department of Education and the Public Service Board were responsible for all aspects of the Teachers' Colleges and teachers in the State from conditions of employment of all academic and non-academic staff to instructions regarding the conduct and responsibilities of teachers to buildings, grounds, furniture and equipment.

Rules and regulations regarding all aspects of the ATC were enacted by state legislation and administered by the Minister for Education. Regulations under the Public Service act affected matters such as employment and salaries. The Principal was regarded as an agent of the Department of Education, responsible for the efficient administration and management of the College as a whole including teaching, government, buildings and grounds. He was the senior departmental officer within the College and responsible for ensuring all Department of Education instructions were carried out and conveyed to those under his supervision.

The College Curriculum was divided into three areas: Lecture Courses, Demonstrations and Practice Teaching. The administration of Demonstrations and Practice Teaching remained fairly stable and consistent from its 1928 beginnings. Lecture courses, naturally, saw more change as subjects were added, discarded or combined. The earliest administrative change to course curriculum was the development of Departments in which several disciplines were grouped together.

In 1938 the New England University College (NEUC) was established and 13 students commenced a four-year teacher training course. Throughout the coincident lifetimes of the ATC and the NEUC, first and second year University College undergraduates enrolled in units offered by the ATC in addition to their university units in order to fulfil their teacher training qualifications.

A major curriculum change took place in 1965 when the curriculum was divided into five Core Courses: Legacy of the Western World; The Arts; Man in a Scientific & Technological World; Government, Citizenship & Democracy; and Australian Society & Culture. While traditional subject areas - education, English, mathematics - were still taught, these 'core' headings differed greatly from the old Department headings. The Core Courses were cross- and multi-disciplinary. Core routine administration and professional activities, however, differed little.

In 1964-65 the Committee on the Future Education in Australia published its report 'Tertiary Education in Australia' (the Martin Report). The report's recommendation that a new type of college be established to offer tertiary education to the level of Diploma resulted in the formal establishment of an Advanced College of Education system. From 1 September 1971 the ATC became a College of Advanced Education (CAE) still within the Department of Education (7) under section 16(1) of the Higher Education Act 1969 (Act No.29, 1969) and the title 'the Armidale Teachers' College, a College of Advanced Education appeared on the 1972 handbook. From 1 December 1974 under section 16 (1) of the Higher Education Act 1969, the ATC became a body corporate with the corporate name of Armidale College of Advanced Education, making it an autonomous institution. (8)

Endnotes
1. NSW Parliamentary Record, 1999 p.108.
2. NRS 12082, Cabinet Documents, 1922-1929 [9/5109.4].
3. Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the year 1927, p.2 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1928-29 Vol. 1, p.230.
4. Public Service List, 1928, Sydney, Government Printer, 1929, p.97.
5. Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the year 1928, p.4 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1929-1930 Vol. 1, p.202.
6. Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the year 1929, p.7 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1930-31-32 Vol. 1, p.305.
7. Higher Education Act 1969, s.17(1); NSW Government Gazette No.95, 27 August 1971, p.3299.
8. Higher Education Act 1969 (Act No.29, 1969), s.16(1); NSW Government Gazette No.143, 29 November 1974, p.4619.

References
P. Biskup, Libraries in Australia. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, 1994.
L.A. Gilbert, Forty-three and seven: a short illustrated history of the first fifty years of teacher education in Armidale. Armidale: ACAE, 1978.
E.S. Elphick, College on the hill : a history of Armidale Teachers College and Armidale College of Advanced Education 1928-1989. Armidale: ACAE, 1989.
G.W. Muir, Staff handbook. Unpublished manuscript by the Principal of the ATC from 1961-1967, (n.d.).